Huang Lixin

The most complete perpetual calendar device

Friends who are slightly interested in watches must have heard of the perpetual calendar, one of the "three major composite functions" of watches. Its English name is "Permanent Calendar", which literally translates as "permanent calendar", which means that its calendar display is always synchronized with reality-at least before 2 100 years.

0 1 has 10 million rules, one of which is synchronization.

Some friends may ask, is the watch we usually wear out of sync with reality?

You can't say that.

As we all know, a year is 12 months, of which 7 months are 3 1 day, 4 months are 30 days, plus 28 or 29 days in February-in short, the length of each month is different.

The calendar disk in the mechanical watch is marked with the numbers 1 to 3 1 without exception, and rotates once every 3 1 day by default. If your watch showed the 28th yesterday and today's date has not been calibrated, then its calendar will definitely show the 29th instead of the actual (March) 1.

In contrast, the IQ of watches with annual calendars and perpetual calendars is much higher. In particular, the mechanical system of perpetual calendar can not only distinguish between big months and small months, but also distinguish between normal years and leap years. At the end of each month, you can automatically switch from 28th, 29th, 30th, 3 1 to 1 of next month, which is very artistic.

Of course, the so-called perpetual calendar or perpetual calendar is just an exaggeration. Because our current calendar is a leap every four years, 100 does not leap, and then jumps in 400 years, the latter two require too much of the brain circuit, so most perpetual calendars can only achieve a leap every four years, and need to be manually adjusted by the end of February of 2 100.

According to historical records, the perpetual calendar function was first invented in18th century, before other "two major composite functions of watches"-flywheel and minute repeater. This is not to say that the structure of the former is simpler and easier to realize than the latter, but because people in the early days had an urgent need for various display functions related to calendars (not everyone was familiar with calendars at that time), and the perpetual calendar just met people's needs and saved them the pain of correcting dates, which can be said to have unparalleled practical significance.

By the middle of19th century, the perpetual calendar ushered in a display period. At that time, pocket watches with complicated functions were especially favored by European royalty. As the saying goes, "the top watchmakers and watch factories in Switzerland and Germany have come up with their own finale skills." For example, Patek Philippe received an order from Princess Louisa fernanda around 1866, and designed a pocket watch with complex functions, which integrates perpetual calendar, moon phase display and reverse jump hands. The case is engraved with the coat of arms of the princess and his wife.

Patek Philippe customized a perpetual calendar pocket watch for Princess Louisa fernanda.

After the appearance of the watch, the perpetual calendar was first transplanted directly from the pocket watch movement to the watch by changing the wrist. Then 1929, the American economic crisis led to the global economic recession. Many traditional Swiss watch factories closed down or stopped the research and development of complex watches because of poor management, so there are very few brands of perpetual calendar watches in history.

1925 Patek Philippe's first perpetual calendar watch is equipped with a female 97975 pocket watch movement.

Patek Philippe, who was taken over by the Stern family, became the only survivor, and successively launched perpetual calendars with timing function, automatic winding and flat leap year display.

Throughout the 20th century, Patek Philippe's perpetual calendar watches are "outstanding" in the high-end watchmaking field because of their large number, dense styles and perfect functions.

Patek Philippe released the Ref.3448 automatic perpetual calendar watch in 1962, but now this watch is sold for one million yuan.

Thousands of rules, one of which is slim.

1985, after the baptism of the crisis, mechanical watches entered a new era. Patek Philippe introduced a ultra-thin automatic perpetual calendar watch, which rekindled people's interest in complex mechanical watches.

Its movement, 240 Q ultra-thin perpetual calendar movement, is 27.5 mm in diameter and only 3.88 mm in thickness. It can not only indicate the day, date, month and moon phase, but also have 24-hour hands and leap year display. Caliber 240 Q ultra-thin perpetual calendar movement and supporting watches have also become the benchmark in the industry.

Today's perpetual calendars are mostly self-winding, and they are often thin. This is not only out of aesthetics, but also from the perspective of daily wear.

Because the perpetual calendar watch is basically a "lazy philosophy", it allows the wearer to use it for a long time and avoid the pain of adjusting the calendar. However, if the watch itself is too heavy to fit into the shirt cuffs that people wear every day, or it needs to be wound manually from time to time, it will naturally affect the wearer's experience.

Patek Philippe Nautilus Perpetual Calendar (Ref.5740) launched last year is equipped with Caliber 240 Q automatic movement, and its thickness is only 8.42mm..

At present, the thinnest automatic perpetual calendar watch in the world is the Royal Oak Concept RD#2 released by Airbnb last year. Its movement and watch are only 2.89 mm and 6.3 mm thick respectively.

No.2 Concept Road, Audemars piguet Royal Oak

This year, Audemars Piguet released another core series CODE 1 1.59 besides Royal Oak, including a perpetual calendar watch. Its optimized Calibre 5 134 movement is slim enough to rank among the top three automatic perpetual calendars.

Audemars piguet code 1 1.59 million calendar automatic watch

The gorgeous dial is made of lapis lazuli. By mixing black copper oxide and cobalt in glass, the effect of twinkling stars in the vast dark blue universe is achieved.

Jaeger-lecoultre's ultra-thin series perpetual calendar enamel watch and the assembled 868 ultra-thin perpetual calendar automatic movement not only have 70 hours of ultra-long power, but also can synchronously adjust all perpetual calendar display items through the crown, which is very simple to operate.

Jaeger-LeCoultre ultra-thin series automatic perpetual calendar enamel watches

The diameter of the watch is 39 mm, and the thickness is only 10.44 mm, so the wearing comfort is beyond doubt.

Vacheron Constantin's ultra-thin perpetual calendar, with a case of 4 1.5mm, rose gold material, slim figure of 8. 1mm and translucent silver dial, is simply beautiful.

Vacheron Constantin ultra-thin perpetual calendar

The 1 120 QP movement produced by this brand is loaded inside, and the 22K gold pendulum with rose compass pattern is decorated in the wind direction.

There are thousands of rules, one of which is dynamic storage.

The function and characteristics of the perpetual calendar determine that it can run for a long time and avoid power failure, otherwise it will be difficult once it stops.

If you want to run, it is unrealistic to just hope that the owner will never give up, and it is unrealistic to "wind up" the watch every day. Once you go to the suburbs or the seaside for the weekend and leave your watch at home, your motivation will be unsustainable. Therefore, a major trend of perpetual calendar watches nowadays is to make the "standby time" as long as possible, and at least it can be idle for a weekend without stopping.

Glashü tte version of Parliament's excellent perpetual calendar watch has a completely hollowed-out dial with five calendar display items: southeast, northwest and middle. It looks scrawled, but it is extremely clear and convenient to read.

Senator Glashü tte's Outstanding Calendar Edition

Based on the new generation of 36 self-winding movement, it not only has efficient double-material self-winding (side length 2 1 kGold), but also has standby time of more than 4 days.

When it comes to long-term incentives, the "seven-day chain" of countries naturally cannot lag behind others. This year's newly released perpetual calendar watch for large-scale pilots of Spitfire fighters uses a bronze case, an olive-green dial and gold-plated hands, which is completely different from the general elegant perpetual calendar watch.

Universal Spitfire Fighter Autowatch with perpetual calendar for big pilots.

The internally assembled automatic movement 526 15 made in Wan Guo adopts Bilton automatic winding system made of ceramic material, double clockwork, and 7 days (168 hours) of power storage, which is called Huawei mobile phone in terms of battery life. Its small second hand also has a stop function, and all date display items can be adjusted synchronously through the crown, which is very easy to use.

The world's "seven-day chain" is already very overbearing, but in the face of Vacheron Constantin's latest research and development achievements, it can only be ranked second.

Vacheron Constantin's calendar with two movements.

This series of dual-core perpetual calendar watches introduces a brand-new concept, that is, according to the user's needs (wear or idle), the movement can be switched between the high frequency of 5 Hz (36,000 times/hour) and the low frequency of1.2 Hz (8,640 times/hour) without disturbing the running time of the movement. The former can last four days, while the latter can last an astonishing 65 days. During this period, the watch's time and various calendar displays can maintain normal operation.

There are thousands of rules, one of which is adjustment.

According to different adjustment methods, perpetual calendars can be divided into several categories.

The first is the traditional perpetual calendar. Usually, there are four function correction buttons on the side of the watch case, which correspond to the "traditional elements" of the perpetual calendar: calendar, weekly calendar, month, moon phase and leap year (linked with the month, usually there is no independent correction button), and they are adjusted by the pen-like tools of the original factory.

It is precisely because the adjustment process of perpetual calendar is complicated and there are many taboos, so we emphasize that it is best not to let the watch stop.

Clifton Baumatic celebrity calendar realizes the coexistence of advanced and complex functions and people-friendly prices.

Nowadays, many perpetual calendars are improved on the basis of tradition, such as Langematik perpetual calendar.

Lan Zhi honey gold edition Lan Zhi Matik perpetual calendar

It not only has hidden buttons around the watch case to adjust each calendar item independently, but also adds a hidden integral adjustment button at the 10 position of the watch case, so that all calendar display items can be moved forward by one day only by this button, which greatly simplifies the steps of short-term adjustment (for example, stopping for two or three days).

Another adjustment method can be called "preset perpetual calendar". Its movement usually adopts an integrated structure, and there is no correction button on the side of the case, but all display functions are adjusted synchronously through the crown. Jaeger-LeCoultre and Universal Calendar watches introduced in the previous article belong to this category.

Finally, there is a more advanced one, called adjustable perpetual calendar, which can be adjusted in all directions without dead ends, as long as the date existing in reality (whether forward or backward) can be displayed on the watch.

At present, only a handful of watch manufacturers in the industry have produced products that can adjust the perpetual calendar, and all of them use their own patented technology, and there is no unified specification. One of the most representative is the watchmaker Ludwig? The perpetual calendar, which can be adjusted forward or backward freely, was developed by Dr. Oklin in 1996, and it is also an enduring classic of Athens watch in recent 20 years.

Athens brand-new Ludwig perpetual calendar

Montblanc's newly launched perpetual calendar series this year adopts MB 29.22 automatic movement developed by the brand for three years.

The movement has a larger size, which perfectly fits the diameter of 40 mm. Instead of using the conventional lever-driven perpetual calendar structure, it is completely driven by gears. The date can be calibrated forward or backward through the crown, and the operation is very simple.

Montblanc new inheritance series perpetual calendar table

There are thousands of rules, one of which is accuracy.

Finally, talk about the internal structure of the perpetual calendar. Some readers may have heard that the core device of the perpetual calendar system is a "program wheel" that rotates once every four years.

As shown in the figure, the "program wheel" consists of serrated grooves, with the three deepest grooves representing 28 days in February of three normal years, 1 shorter groove representing 29 days in February of leap year, the remaining grooves representing 30 days in four small months each year, and the whole outer edge representing 3 1 day in seven big months each year. The depth at which the control lever on the left side of the program wheel "falls" into the groove determines which day the calendar system jumps to at the end of the month.

Even in Switzerland, there are only a handful of manufacturers who can develop their own perpetual calendars. In China, only Tianjin Seagull tried it a few years ago, and then it went away. One of the important reasons is the high precision of internal parts. Compared with the "program wheel" at a glance, the levers, cams and springs all over the movement are the key to determine whether the perpetual calendar system can run smoothly.

They pull each other, one lever lifts, triggering the rotation of the cam, and the other lever falls under the drive of the spring to push the calendar to rotate. Similar "large-scale dance dramas" are staged day after day and month after month. A slight error in the length, angle and strength of any part may cause the whole system to be stuck.

Moreover, the 48-tooth "program wheel" can only be regarded as the routine operation of the perpetual calendar. There is also a more sophisticated system, the core device of which is a planetary gear train with 12 teeth. The whole gear train rotates once every 12 months, while the pocket planetary gear rotates once every four years, forming a complete flat leap year cycle together.

Patek Philippe launched the Ref.5320 automatic perpetual calendar watch last year, which is equipped with a newly developed Caliber 324 S Q automatic movement and a planetary gear train with 12 teeth.

The double windows of the sun and the moon at 12 o'clock on the dial have the function of instantaneous jump, and the calendar and the moon phase disk at 6 o'clock form a symmetrical interface with the day and night and leap year windows on both sides.

Patek Philippe Ref.5320 automatic perpetual calendar

In order to make the display on the disk stretch as much as possible, Patek Philippe designed the "deck" of the 324 automatic movement and laid a perpetual calendar module on it.

Of course, other professional watchmaking brands also have their own unique skills. For example, Henry Mouche made the famous "FlashCalendar" perpetual calendar, and displayed the perpetual calendar information through the exclusive flash calendar window with month hands on the dial.

Henry Mu Shiyong invented the perpetual calendar pure universe green watch.

Its flash calendar is formed by overlapping upper and lower annular calendar disks, and users can quickly adjust the perpetual calendar forward or backward through the crown at any time of the day, even if they shuttle through multiple time intervals.

Another unique feature of Henry Mu Si's perpetual calendar is that it only displays the correct date according to the actual length of the month. For example, 1 1 has only 30 days, and the calendar window will jump directly from the 30th to 1 in the next month instead of displaying the nonexistent 3 1 day. Similarly, at the end of February in a normal year, its calendar window will jump directly from 28th to 1 in the next month, without the transition of 29th, 30th and 3rd1. It seems simple, but it is actually wonderful.

Let's take a look at this 5887 time equation watch of Breguet sailing series. It magically realizes automatic winding, perpetual calendar, time equation, flywheel and 80 hours of long power. Moreover, the month and week windows are instantaneous, and the calendar hands are inverted. Coupled with the coaxial sun-time pointer, the complexity of perpetual calendar display has been pushed to an unprecedented height.

Breguet Navigation Series 5887 Time Equation Watch

Congratulations on reading this perpetual calendar guide ... even if you don't understand it ... you must think it's amazing! ! The perpetual calendar is really super interesting. I encourage you to buy some and wear them for research! !

Friends, see you next time (next Friday).

Chen Guangda

Editor Han Haha

The picture is provided by the brand.

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The above is about the most complete installation of perpetual calendar, and it is about the sharing of perpetual calendar. Read the original old almanac, I hope this will help everyone!